LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said Friday that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney focused too narrowly on economic issues during last year’s campaign and that the GOP needs to stick to its principles on social issues such as gay marriage and abortion.

An outspoken abortion opponent who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, Brownback said his party should broaden its agenda but not abandon social issues as it prepares for next year’s midterm elections.

“You can’t just talk all about economic terms,” Brownback told The Associated Press before speaking to a fundraiser for the Arkansas Republican Party. “You’ve got to talk about terms to the heart.”

Brownback said Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, should have talked about issues beyond the economy during his failed White House bid last year.

“I think he got cast or he cast himself too narrow on it,” Brownback said. “I think he would have been better off talking about the social issues more. Obama talked a lot about social issues. If people don’t hear you talking about them, they don’t think they’re necessarily that important to you.”

Brownback was in Little Rock to speak at the Arkansas Republican Party’s annual Reagan-Rockefeller dinner. Republicans won control of the state Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction in November and swept all four of the state’s congressional seats.

With the new majority, Republicans in Arkansas successfully pushed for some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. They include a measure that bans most abortions 12 weeks into a pregnancy, a restriction that has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.

Opponents of the 12-week ban say it violates the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion until viability, which is generally considered to be around 22 to 24 weeks.

Brownback was in Little Rock the same day a state judge blocked some of Kansas’ new abortion restrictions, including a requirement that providers said would make it nearly impossible for a woman to obtain an emergency abortion.

Brownback said Republicans need to continue their opposition to abortion, calling it one of the party’s core principles.

“If you believe this is a life, how do you not fight for a life? If you make that determination that this is a life, this is a sacred life, you have to fight for it or what does that say about what you’re willing to allow?” Brownback said. “Much of it transcends politics.”

During his speech to more than 500 people gathered for the fundraiser, Brownback said Republican state legislators and governors can take the lead in making the party’s principles relevant to voters.

“You change America not by changing Washington, but by changing states,” he said.